Little progress at Arusha summit

Little progress was made at Monday’s regional summit in the Tanzanian town of Arusha, convened to try and find a way out of the impasse surrounding the Burundi peace process. The Internews press service said a “terse but inconclusive” statement was read out by Judge Mark Bomani of the facilitation team at the end of the meeting which failed to resolve the issue of who will lead the transition period. “The summit leadership was disappointed to hear that six months [after the signing of the Arusha peace accord] the issue is not resolved,” Bomani said. Peace mediator Nelson Mandela’s proposal to split the leadership of the transition between a Tutsi and a Hutu president was accepted by some of the 19 negotiating sides, but rejected by others leading to a continued stalemate. The summit was attended by the leaders of Burundi, Rwanda, DRC, Kenya, Tanzania and the vice-presidents of Uganda, Gabon and South Africa. The 19 negotiating sides were due to continue consultations on Tuesday, while Mandela was scheduled to visit camps housing Burundian refugees in western Tanzania.

According to the Hirondelle news agency, the summit declaration “welcomed the progress attained in proximity talks aimed at achieving a cessation of hostilities in Burundi”. The participants called on South African Vice President Jacob Zuma to “intensify his efforts with the objective of getting a ceasefire soon”. They also appealed to the UN Security Council to “expedite the dispatch of peacekeepers and protection aides to Burundi as soon as there is a suspension of hostilities”.